TOPICS OF THE DAY.
VIE USE OF A LORD-LIEUTENANT IN IRELAND. MINISTERS have determined to fill up the vacant office of Lord- Lieutenant for Ireland ; justly alleging that the present troubled crisis in that country is inauspicious for experimental changes in the structure of government. Nevertheless, opinion among in- telligent classes in Ireland may be said to have reached its cli- max, against the office, its Motility, its humbug, its temptations to the place-hunting rapacity which is the bane of Ireland. There was no service performed even by Lord Besborough which could not quite as well have been executed by an Imperial Se- cretary of State as by a Lord-Lieutenant. However, there is a Viceroyalty hanging on hand ; and the immediate question is, whether any use might possibly be made of such a thing. Perhaps it might be of use at the present time if the Lord- Lieutenant were to possess some influence with the people at Large. Such influence has existed before in Ireland, and has proved more efficacious in controlling the people than military or constabulary. But it has always been of a peculiar kind ; always the joint effect of personal intercourse and some sort of imposing theatrical ceremony. The Irish are praised for their warmth of feeling : their likes and dislikes certainly take a very pronounced form, and exercise a sway greatly dispro- portioned to any intellectual discipline. It is a fact of which they are proud, one which their unprejudiced friends deplore ; but still it is a fact. Now every nation must be governed through itself; and every wise government will take a lesson from the me- thod in which the demagogue attains his influence. Mr. O'Connell, the most influential person in Ireland, has been assiduous in two things,—in keeping up a personal intercourse with the people; and in keeping up a great show, by dint of travelling with four horses, getting monstrously large numbers to assemble at public meetings, making up societies that seemed to have revolutionary objects, to repeal the Union or the like, wearing archaeological caps, and standing in a fancy-dress on the " Rate of Mullaghmast," and such dramatic effects. It will be observed that he always got on very well when he could follow up any exhausted manoeuvre of this nature with some new device. But when he was not provided with a sequel his popularity began to decline. Hence the rise of the Young Ireland party—a party to make the sequel which O'Connell did not furnish: hence even, some have suspected, the true reason of his pilgrimage to see the Pope.
Another agitator of a different kind was the philanthropic Theobald Mathew : his influence also was produced by personal intercourse, with the help of the monster Temperance meetings,' the pledge, the blessing, and the medal. But he bad no sequel : when the people had taken the pledge and accepted the medal, there was nothing more to be done, except to break the pledge. Accordingly, Mr. Mathew's monster influence is a thing of the past : the Excise in Ireland has flourished through the famine ; and illicit distillation is carried on by the very people that cla- mour for prohibition of grain in distilleries !
Lord Normanby attained a very extensive influence, by per- sonal intercourse and a paoeant: but he also lacked a sequel— when the people were discharged from the gaols, what was there to follow ?
These historical facts seem to indicate that it might be of use if Government had some one to get up a popular agitation in fa- vour of good order—a kind of political traveller. The Emperor of China annually follows the plough ; and perhaps if the Lord- Lieutenant were to do the same, it might help to make plough- ing fashionable among agriculturists. Richard the Second su- perseded Wat Tyler by crying to the mob, "I will be your leader !"—perhaps the Lord-Lieutenant might in some such way supersede Captain Rock and Molly Maguire. There would be no lack of a sequel : plough in hand, he might lead county after county over the furrowed field ; armed with the sickle, he might Alai the high-priest of an universal "reaping frolic " • wielding the pitchfork, he might wage a crusade against the domestic dunghill at the cabin-door ; and by help of a present viceregal countenance, he might cast a sunshine of good feeling over the relations of landlord and tenant.
But—would it be safe ? could the Lord-Lieutenant go about without a chance of being shot at ? We think he cuu d. The influential persons of whom we have spoken were never shot at. The Irish do not shoot at those who keep them excited and amused. The gun appears to be principally a resource against
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